Khan Commits To Focus Ahead Of Crawford

Looking back at the second fight of his comeback, Amir Khan knows he has to be the most focused he has been in his career.

Khan walks into Madison Square Garden on April 20th, standing across from welterweight champion Terence Crawford, and the Bolton-born boxer keeps replaying the second round of his decision win over Samuel Vargas in his head.

The September 8th showdown saw Khan let his guard down and then see Khan sent to the canvas. While the miscalculation was brief and would see Khan send Vargas down in the third en-route to a unanimous decision win, the lack of focus irked him.

“That’s the only time I really lost focus in the fight,” Khan explained to BoxingScene.com. “In the fight, I put him down and I was winning the fight quite easily. And, you know, you take your eye off the game, I stood still and he caught me with a good shot over the top and put me down. Sometimes you lose that focus and things like that can happen. I know that against a guy like Crawford I can’t lose my focus one bit because he’s really dangerous, he can hurt me and he can beat me. So, I’m never gonna do that. I’ll be more switched on against Crawford, knowing that it’s a big fight and there’s a lot on the table.”

Crawford walks in as a 14-1 favorite for their ESPN Pay-Per-View fight at Madison Square Garden, while Khan fought two tune-up fights leading to the first title fight for the boxer since 2016.

“I think the last two fights were just to get me geared up for these big fights,” Khan said his win over Vargas and first-round destruction of Phil Lo Greco. “I need to motivate myself for a fight like this, whereas the last two fights I had it’s hard to motivate yourself against guys that you know that you’re supposed to go in and win against. So, you make a mistake and people put you down.

“I mean, I think this is a fight that I am the underdog. Other than this fight, I think the only other fight was against Canelo when I was the underdog. He was way too big and way too strong. But the other fights I’ve lost, I’ve always been the favorite. That does put a lot of pressure on you. But at the same time, you do take your mind off the game a little bit.”